There are numerous categories of products that are sold by brand name. Typically, for certain categories of products, each manufacturer markets its branded products as separate from other manufacturers. Moreover, for these same type of products, a distributor that offers for sale the same or similar product category by different manufacturers will typically have its catalogue organized by manufacturer and not by product category. In this way, a consumer is unable to compare different brand names from different manufacturers in order to purchase alternative products. Examples of such markets include patients with intestinal stomas, incontinence, wound care needs, diabetes; and for patients requiring home respiratory therapy, respiratory access and tracheotomy care, home intravenous therapy, home occupational, physical and/or rehabilitation therapy, pediatric products, chiropractic and/or orthopedic equipment, braces and supports. Other examples of such markets include the category of perfumes.
In one embodiment, the present invention is applied to products used in conjunction with a stoma (e.g. an opening through the body wall). In urostomy, colostomy, ileostomy, and other similar operations, part or all of a patient's bladder, intestine, or other organ is removed, and is replaced with a conduit for channeling body fluids or waste out of the patient's body via a stoma or tube. In the case of a colostomy, ileostomy or urostomy, body waste is collected by an external apparatus, usually attached to the patient's skin around the stoma or tube. For example, a conventional ostomy appliance is a relatively flat plastic bag having an aperture to receive the stoma, the bag usually being formed with a flange for fitting around the stoma and for being sealed to the skin of the abdomen with an adhesive layer.
A primary problem faced by ostomates is that of undesired leakage around the containment appliance attached to the stoma location. Typically, a pouch for containing and holding the bodily drainages (i.e., human excrement, such as fecal matter or urine) is adhesively attached to the skin surrounding the stoma. Any type of relative movement between the surrounding skin area and the adhesive material will create a channel or a track through which bodily drainages will leak. Such leakages may cause detrimental damage to the surrounding skin and are also a source of humiliation and embarrassment for the ostomate, not to mention the other problems associated with smell and damage to clothing.
Because of these conditions, there exist numerous products that are used with or in conjunction with a stoma including pouches, ostomy systems, sealants and skin barriers. For example, Hollister offers for sale a line of branded drainable pouches named "First Choice" while Coloplast offers for sale its own line of branded drainable pouches named "Assura". However, prior to the present invention, an end-user of one of these branded products would not and could not directly compare these branded products. Accordingly, as an example, an end-user who was presently buying a specific type of "Assura" drainable pouch would not be able to comparison shop and thus, compare to a specific type of a "First Choice" product. Moreover, in many cases, end-users were unaware that comparable branded products even existed and thus, the end-user may have had no expectation that he/she could comparison shop.
In addition, manufacturers of a specific branded product have been motivated in the past to assure that its branded product can not be comparison shopped with another manufacturer's branded product. Manufacturers employ numerous methods to achieve this result including, for example: (a) establishing a branded name (i.e. a label for the specific product); (b) establishing an internal proprietary coding system; (c) publishing catalogues and other sales information that avoids any detailed analysis of the product; and (d) providing insufficient details of their product so that distributors are required to publish catalogues that are compiled according to each manufacturer and not according to product category. All of these techniques have one main purpose--to prevent the manufacturer's own branded product from being compared to other potentially competitive products. In this way, an end-user who has previously bought certain branded product from one manufacturer, will not be likely to switch to another manufacturer's branded product. Thus, the end-user will continue to purchase from the same manufacturer.
In contrast, there exist product categories that have a history of comparison shopping. For example, one category that has produced a multitude of products and has become a highly competitive comparison shopping environment is consumer appliances and electronics. Each type of product such as a television set is typically available from several different manufacturers, and each manufacturer typically produces several models of the same type of product. For example, an electronic distributor will typically display 20 inch television sets from different manufacturers and several models from the same manufacturer in a side-by-side comparison. As such, for these product categories, there exists an expectation on behalf of the end-user that there are comparable branded products.
Despite these known categories of products involving comparison shopping, there still is needed a system that automatically compares branded products (that were previously only identified according to their own brand manufacturer and not comparison shopped) for the categories of non-comparison shopped products and provides an accurate and precise comparison, responsive to changing industry products, that also provides point of sale assistance to consumers with branded products and price comparisons among manufacturers products.